A consortium of Coventry businessman led by Gary Hoffman is taking stock after a second offer to buy Coventry City Football Club has been rejected by owners Sisu.

The former vice-chairman says the deal - which would give £1.2million cash up front and is worth more than £10m subject to various add-ons linked to promotion, cup success and even 50 per cent of player sales - is very generous but revealed that Sisu boss Joy Seppala views it as ‘derisory.’

Hoffman, who tabled an initial bid last weekend, also revealed that he and his group of investors are confident they would secure a long-term deal to stay at the Ricoh Arena .

He said: “I asked to meet Joy Seppala this week and she said she would rather not but asked if I could put another proposal in writing, which is what I did this morning with a much improved offer. But, again, I was very disappointed to receive a flat refusal and even more disappointed that the details of the offer have been leaked out, yet again. Not really the way to conduct business!

“All I want to do is make sure that Coventry City ends up in the hands of people who care. We are in the worst position in the league for six decades. There are actually very few assets to purchase and any objective valuation of the assets at the football club would probably be nil, or negative, so we start from that position.”

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As for the exact details of the offer, Hoffman told BBC Coventry and Warwickshire: “We have said we will give £1.2million cash on the change of ownership, so a very significant amount of money up front.

“We have said 50 per cent of all player transfers over the next three years would go to Sisu, 50 per cent of all proceeds from the sale of Ryton would got to Sisu, albeit we don’t think it should be sold but they see it as an asset.

“They’d get half a million on promotion to League One and staying there for a year, £1m on getting to the Championship and staying there for a year and then – and obviously this is ambitious – but promotion to the Premier League they get another £7m. And then we’d throw the money in for the Checkatrade Trophy, League Cup winner of £1m and things that we’d love.

“All of those things add up to well over £10m for something that’s not worth anything. And, more importantly, what we’d be doing is returning Coventry to its emotional home.

Long term

“We are very confident we could do a long-term deal to keep Coventry City in it’s home town. We’re very confident we could do the right commercial deals around that to put investment into the club on a sustainable basis so that we can get promotion to League One and then the Championship in a stable and sustained way.

“We would put that money in. None of the people who are investing with me are doing it for financial gain. I think that’s something maybe Sisu don’t understand. I Just want to give back and I am lucky enough to be in a position to do so and know people who are successful in business.”

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He added: “I have said to all my investors that we should go into this assuming that we are throwing money down the drain. Of course, it’s possible there may be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but what this is about is making sure Coventry City is returned to its home town by people who care about it because we can not sit back and watch the continued demise of the club, and what we have seen under Sisu’s stewardship over the last nine years is a vicious cycle of downward spiral, and we want to reverse that.

Joy Seppala

“We are doing that by making what we think is a very generous offer to Sisu and we will invest the money and execute. They don’t need to do anything except take the benefit of any upside and share from the proceeds of something they would no longer be controlling.”

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CCFC win at Wembley

Asked about the future at the Ricoh, Hoffman said: “That is Coventry City’s home and we would be confident of doing a long-term deal to do that. Absolutely. The shop should be back there and there are many things we can do once we have agreed a deal with Sisu.”

Take stock

Asked if he is now going to make a third offer, he said: “I think we need to take stock now. I am very perplexed that this has been described as derisory because it’s clearly not. It’s generous.

“I will talk to people over the weekend and see what we do next. I don’t like the way this is being done.

“I have had lots of correspondence with Joy Seppala which has been very professional and we’ve had some good dialogue. Clearly she is at one end of the spectrum and I am at the other. I think this is generous, she thinks it’s derisory.

“Hopefully that’s just negotiation. I hope there is something to be done here because we can’t go on like this.”

Hoffman insists that he has told Sisu that he will provide proof of funds.